To Learn To Fly Again
by Legend96
Summary: "You see, Rose, that's where the idea of imagination comes in. We don't need planes or hang gliders. All we need is our imagination and the memory of how it felt to fly." John/Rose post-SBurb oneshot


**Disclaimer: I do not own any of what you are about to read. Nope, I am not a jerk, I am not someone who updates with one flash that ends with "Proceed to next page" and does not post the link to the next page, which means I am not Andrew Hussie. Everything Homestuck is his.**

Sometimes, when Rose was feeling particularly bored, she'd lower her knitting needles and stare at a trunk in the corner of her room. Her eyebrows would come together as an urge to open it and search through its contents consumed her, and usually she'd ignore that urge in favor of finishing whatever item she was knitting at that moment - whether it was a scarf or a sweater.

But it was a day in which the urge to go through that white trunk over came her, and she stood from the rocking chair situated in the opposite corner of her room. The needles and incomplete scarf of the day rested on her dark purple and white bed comforter, and she approached the trunk almost cautiously. She knelt in front of it, hands trailing over the gentle dome of it, eyeing the symbol on the top of it that had been on her God Tier.

With a careful sigh she popped the lock on it, lifting the lid up. Boxes and photo albums greeted her, some covered in dust, others not so much. But the box she most wanted she knew was at the bottom of the chest, and so she carefully dug through the stacks of other items before she found it.

A breath of anticipation left her lips as she stood, box in hand. She left the trunk open, sitting on the edge of her bed as she opened the clothing box. Inside, there were orange and yellow pieces of clothing, soft like pajamas yet durable like jeans. She let her fingers ghost over the fabric materials, and a soft _Ping! _came from her laptop.

Rose glanced over at the computer, fingers itching to pull the clothing from the box, but she knew the message she'd received over Pesterchum came first. She leaned back to grab at the laptop, scooting it forwards so that she could turn it and read the message.

A smile graced her lips upon checking the owner of it, an idea forming in her mind. On account of the Game, she and the others had opted to move to a place where they could all be much closer to each other once all of them had turned eighteen. As such, John lived in apartment above hers, Jade lived in the room next to hers - they shared the apartment, though at the moment Jade was out with Dave - and Dave technically had his own apartment but could be found most of the time gaming with John.

At the moment, Rose read over John's message with a soft grin, sending a reply and then phrasing the question she wanted to ask him properly, before sending that off as well. A stunned yet excited reply answered her after a few moments, and soon enough there was a knock on the main door. Rose lifted herself from her seat, fixing the skirt around her waist before answering the door.

John had a similar box tucked under his arm, a wide grin on his face. Resisting the urge to roll her eyes at him, Rose beckoned him into the apartment, watching as he set the box on the table in the kitchen. "This has to be the best idea you've had in a while, Rose," he said. Rose raised an eyebrow at him, answering, "Surely you haven't forgotten my other brilliant ideas, John - "

"You mean the ones that caused you to go grimdark?" he said, a smirk on his face. Rose's eyebrow twitched, a flustered scowl and flush washing over her. Before her stuttering outrage started, John opened his box with a flourish and removed the sky blue shirt that was made of the same material her own God Tier was.

His grin returned, and Rose slowly composed her, letting her eyes roam over the symbol on the shirt. "Well, Rose? Aren't you going to go yet yours?" he asked, picking up his pants and hood before retreating down the hall and into the bathroom.

Granted, it had been months since Rose last saw her God Tier outfit out of its box, and even longer since she had worn it, yet the urge to see it on herself and have the familiar fabric over her skin once more was so very tempting. And if she remembered correctly, John Egbert in his God Tier had been an attractive sight, no matter how much of a dork he truly was.

It was a few moments later that she found herself standing in front of her full length mirror, tugging her hood over her head. Her eyes still clashed with the bright oranges and yellows, violet and dark against the Light coloring. As per its usual way of fitting, the hood feel over her eyes, and yet she could still _see_.

Being a Seer had its perks, apparently.

The shoes that went with the God Tier outfit to complete it were hidden in the back of her closet, and to make her dig easier, she pulled the hood away from her line of vision. She found them, perched carefully atop a closed box of heels she'd worn once and sworn never again to. They were actually lovely shoes, yet the colors were so hard to match to anything in her wardrobe besides the God Tier she couldn't wear them out.

It was with a grin that she tore them from their Throne of Shoes and snuggled her feet into them, all the while feeling the same energy she'd had in the Game reverbrate through her body. A relishing sigh left her lips as she stood, and she could feel the burning urge to float into the air course through her veins.

It had been six years since she'd officially gained that ability, and three years since she'd lost it. Her own desire to fly wasn't as burning as John's though. From what she understood he'd often wake from dreams of soaring over his memory of Prospit, crying because he couldn't take his feet off of the ground like he'd been able to.

As she exited her room, she bumped into John. Quite literally, it was more of a, "we exited two different rooms at the same time and did so at a force so now we've bumped noses and it hurt really badly" sort of bump. Wincing and holding her nose, Rose raised a hand to slap John's away from his own nose, and she touched it, making sure it wasn't broken or bleeding.

John stood still while she did that, and she pretended not to notice the furious blush on his cheeks or the wide eyes. She almost thought he would be grateful for that. Once the stinging in her nose ended, she removed her hand, took a careful breath through her nostrils, and smiled up at him.

"It's nice to see the Heir again," she said offhandedly, turning to saunter down the hall. John followed her, cracking out, "I could say the same about the Seer except she completely terrified me."

Chuckling a bit and pulling the hood back over her head, Rose waited a moment to answer. "You mean I didn't terrify you before I had mystical powers?" John muddled over this for a moment, tossing his head carelessly from side to side.

"A little bit, yeah," he said finally, grinning at her. She rolled her eyes and tugged the hood the rest of the way down, glad that it hid the tops of her cheeks. His grin had made her cheeks flush, and the tingly warm sensation was - at the moment - unwelcome.

For a few minutes more they simply stayed where they were, until John sighed extravagantly and made to approach her. "You know something?" he said softly. She shook her head, eyes closing behind the orange of her hood. "I really, really want to try flying right now."

Her eyes snapped open and she flipped her hood back, watching him intensely. "You're not going to throw yourself over a cliff, are you? Tavros was forced by Vriska to do that, you remember - "

John frowned and shook his head. "I'm not going to do anything like that, Rose." He sighed again and stretched his arms over his head, looking up at the apartment ceiling with an almost longing look on his face. "What I meant was that what if there was some way we could get our God Tier powers back. At least the flying part, anyway."

Rose was intrigued, she would admit to that. However the very idea was so very farfetched that she wanted to cry immediately and tell John not to ever bring it up again. Instead she hummed in her disapproval of dreaming for things that couldn't happen, looking at John's face as it snapped back down to face her.

"Don't think we can find a way, Lalonde?"

"We live in a world of logic and lives that deal with complications that are so pathetic to us, Egbert. Flying in this world is impossible unless we are on a hang glider or airplane."

John snapped his fingers, a grin replacing his thoughtful frown. "You see, Rose, that's where the idea of imagination comes in. We don't need planes or hang gliders. All we need is our imagination and the memory of how it felt to_ fly_."

Rose tilted her head, looking down at her hands. They were trembling, even as her eyes slipped shut and she could _see_ the people of Derse looking up at her, could _feel_ the wind tossing at her and ripping at her hood but never able to peel it back, could _feel_ the exhilaration of soaring at heights she never thought possible, could_ feel _the tingle starting in finger tips and moving throughout the rest of her body.

With another sigh she reopened her eyes. "It's a dream, John. Just being dressed as we were when we were once gods isn't going to bring that back."

He frowned at her again, eyes crinkling behind his glasses. He kept his gaze steady on hers, and a simple question broke the tense silence. "Why don't you think we can make this dream a reality?"

Rose kept her own glare level on his.

"Simply put, John, we no longer exist in a world where our actions are only limited by our imaginations. Quite frankly we don't have the power we used to have, nor do we have the assistance of an omniscient programmer of a game designed to test us to the brink of insanity - or in my case, over the brink - and back. I understand the desire to fly again, I really do, but there are things just _not possible _in this world that we want but can't have."

"...the plane was invented with a dream."

"John!" Rose snapped. Her hands went to pull at her hair, eyes closing, trying to squash the burst of pain in herself while at the same time trying not to stroke the hope that burned in her stomach. "Just stop talking about it! Please!"

She didn't realize she was close to crying until John pulled her into a hug, wrapping his arms securely around her waist. She lifted her arms so that they twined around his neck, breathing heavily to keep herself from sobbing.

"I don't long to fly as much as you obviously do," she said. "But I wish for it a hell of a lot more than Dave or Jade do."

John only nodded. They didn't speak again for a time, just stood there, embracing each other, while thoughts raced within their own minds. When John pulled back from the hug, he looked into Rose's eyes, and she could see the same burning desire to find some solution eating at him.

She was sure the same want was reflected in her eyes, yet she did nothing to act on it. Her arms lowered from around his neck, hands fisting in his God Tier shirt. She noticed how the colors of his God Tier and her own clashed in a somewhat marvelous way, and her lips pursed.

"We could _try._" John's voice entered the air again.

"With what? Faith and trust?"

"You forgot the pixie dust."

"John," Rose said, exasperation apparent. His teeth - still crooked but oddly endearing - gnawed at his bottom lip, eyes shifting to the right while he pondered over something. Abruptly he went very stiff, his eyes widened, and his gaze snapped back to Rose's. Color flared in his cheeks.

"John? What is it?" Rose questioned, eyebrow arching over her eye. He only shook his head, stuttering, "I-it's nothing, a-and it's stupid. You p-probably won't t-think it would w-work." He cleared his throat and disentangled his arms completely from her. She did the same with her fists from his shirt, watching as he stepped back from her.

Inexplicably, she felt cold. Her frown grew. "You should at least explain what this thought was. Who knows...maybe it would work." John glanced at her, and the blush that had nearly faded returned full force.

"You'll think it's stupid." John was adamant about not telling her, she was sure about that from the tone of his voice. "You'll always think it's stupid..."

Rose was slightly hurt by this. True, she often turned down ideas given to her by her friends, but she was a _Seer_, it was her job to think these things through and consider all possible outcomes. "At least tell me the general idea of this thought you had."

He let out a breathy laugh before looking at her dead on again. This time, the blush grew, but he wasn't embarrassed enough by it to look away. "The general idea, huh?" He waited a second before continuing. "Well, it's sort of one of those 'you have reached maximum happiness' sort of things. You know, you've finally reached the happiest you could ever be. Something made you so happy, you feel like you could fly..."

Rose understood why he was blushing, now. She had a faint coloring on her cheeks as well, thoughts racing as to what could make her incredibly pleased with the world, like floating on air.

Or rather, cloud nine.

Her eyes widened, and her mouth went dry. Her hands started to tremble again, this time not from the memory of what it was to tear through the air, but rather something she was quite scared of doing. She sucked her bottom lip into her mouth and kept her nervous gaze on John's. Finally, she thought of something to say, and she said it, albeit softly and almost stuttering as he was.

"So, we just need to decide on something that would make us mutually happy."

He nodded. She continued biting at her lip. There was an awkwardness in the air that she desperately wanted to take an evil magic knitting needle to, the sort of awkwardness that could be ended by something she was sure they both wanted to do but were both to inexperienced to initiate.

"What...would that be exactly?" she continued, trying to push through this stage of development. He stared at her, and almost unnoticeably his gaze slipped to her lips and back to her eyes, blush deepening. He took a step towards her, a question in his eyes, hesitation in every inch of his body.

She gulped as he approached, her own line of sight falling to his mouth, except she didn't look up again. "John," she started, and her voice cracked, "if are you going to do what I hope you are going to do, do it soon, please."

His hands reach for her shoulders and she stepped closer to him, and suddenly there's only him, and her eyes met his again and there was a burning determination in them. "What do you hope I'm going to do?" he asked, hands moving from her shoulders to rest against her neck. She could feel them shaking, so she reached up to grasp his wrists, helping to steady them.

"I'm hoping you'll teach us both to fly again," she whispered, and she leaned forward those final few inches and her lips pressed against his. They didn't move against each other, rather it was stiff and almost boring, and yet a feeling of euphoria overcame Rose, a similar feeling of that when she was being lifted into the air by her own willpower.

When that feeling completely washed over her was when she and John began moving their lips against the others, hands moving to further their embrace, the kiss deepening. A few moments of that sheer feelings of complete joy and pleasure and she felt _weightless_. There was no pressure under her feet anymore to let her know she was stuck to the ground, rather there was open air, or at least what felt like open air.

Attributing this to the feeling of contentment given by the kiss, Rose pulled back, smiling wider than she had since she'd been able to fly. Except when she pulled back, she realized something extremely important.

Her feet were not on the ground. Her fingers were tingly. And her entire body was shivering in a sheer joy.

Her God Tier outfit was swirling around her in the same manner it had when she'd had the ability to fly. And John was grinning like someone who'd gotten everything he ever wanted and felt all the satisfaction he thought he would. "Well then," Rose whispered, eyes staring at the ground she and John hovered above.

"I guess it worked," John said, and he pulled her in for another kiss. This time Rose could feel them climbing, and this time Rose was laughing against his lips, breaking this one off as well. She swirled around the apartment in the air, her laughter ringing. John followed her, and she landed once to unlock a window and push it up so that she and he could exit it, hand in hand, and soar out over the city.

Their hands never left the other's for the entire time they looped and shouted and basked in their flight. They had learned to fly again, and although it had taken them years, they felt as if they could live with the absence of this feeling so long as they never had to let it go again.

And the flying was only the second best part, really.

**AN: Ahahahahahahahahahahaha not even sorry. Not at all. You will never stop me.**

**Ever.**

**I will go down with this ship. Yep.**

**Enjoy~**


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